The Four Tails
by Original Dark Angel
Summary: Tomo the FourTailed Wolf Demon lost his powers and his twin to Akatsuki and since devoted himself to the daughter of copynin Kakashi and Anko. Then the Uchiha Brothers and the rest of Team 7 get involved. Starts over at the beginning.
1. Signifigance of the Moon

Mika was a seven year old with short hair the color of the full moon which she was named for and eyes darker than the night sky. She lived with her mother in a small country house a days walk from Konoha, the village which her mother served as a kunoichi.

Tonight she was roaming the fields surrounding their home with the four-tailed silver wolf that served as her guardian when her mother was in Konoha. Tomo had lost most of his powers including immortality to Akatsuki when he lost his older twin the five-tailed red wolf. The only thing he had maintained was a smaller version of his form and legendary cunning. Mika had rescued him from a few hunters as a small child by flinging herself onto the large "dog" and her mother had beaten the men to a pulp for threatening her daughter. They hadn't been able to get rid of him since.

Mika scooped up the night-flowers that she had been gathering, and stood, tangling her fingers into the Tomo's ruff of fur. "It's time to go in, boy. Kaa-san will be home soon."

"You had better be in bed before she is then," the wolf nudged her forward impatiently. "She threatened to turn one of my tails into a fur scarf if she found out that I let you stay up late again and knowing your mother, she'd do it too."

"Poor Tomo," Mika crooned, scratching behind his tears. "You'd still look handsome . . . even with three tails."

"Impertinent child. Go to bed." The wolf began chasing Mika, toning down its speed just enough for the little girl to have a chance. Mika was laughing so hard that the wolf caught her barely halfway across the field and just scooped her up onto his back before continuing towards home.

Fifteen minutes later, Mika was curled up in her bed, feigning sleep as the front door opened almost perfectly silent. She heard the faint footsteps on the stairs, her mother skipping the creaky third one out of habit. Mika buried her face in the large wolf's fur as the door to her bedroom opened soundlessly. Her mother crossed the room and brushed a kiss across Mika's forehead before carding her fingers through the fluffy silver hair.

Mika stirred and faking sleepiness, whispered, "Kaa-san?"

"Yes, Mika. Go to sleep. I'll tell you about the mission in the morning." Her mother pulled the blanket farther up over her shoulders and then tugged on one of Tomo's tails. The wolf's eyes flew open as it yelped. Anko snickered at his offended look. "You're lucky it's too warm to wear scarves right now. Mika's bedtime is nine o'clock, not midnight."

"It's not my fault the brat didn't inherit a respect for authority. It's you and her father's for not having that gene to begin with," the wolf muttered resentfully, tucking his tails firmly out of Anko's reach, and licking the tweaked one before licking Mika's face in apology for calling her a brat. Mika giggled and hugged him. Anko just laughed.

"Good night, you two. Get some sleep." Anko paused at the dresser long enough to light one of the candles kept there, all cut to last exactly eight hours. "I'll tell you about the newest gennin at breakfast if I don't hear a single peep out of you between now and then."

"Night, Kaa-san."

"Night, Mika. Night Tomo."

Anko stumbled down the stairs the next morning, cursing sunlight. Falling into her seat at the table, she blearily watched the four-tailed wolf finish breakfast, occasionally borrowing her seven year old daughter's hands for the tasks he had been unable to find an adaptation for. As Tomo carefully supervised Mika pouring the hot coffee, Anko shook her head and managed one coherent thought in her sleep-muddled brain. "This family is so messed up. My daughter and the dog cook breakfast."

Mika giggled, placing the cup in her mother's hands. "Drink your coffee, Kaa-san. It will make you feel better."

"Dango?"

Tomo shook his head and answered her in an amused voice. "You eat enough of that stuff in Konoha. I won't support the habit here."

"But dango is good, Tomo-chan," Anko whined. "Let Anko have her dango."

"No. You're setting a bad example for Mika. Stop it."

Anko sulked into her coffee while the wolf and Mika ate their breakfast. Finally, she gave in and started in on hers. "So Iruka graduated twenty-seven students, but only nine of them continued on as gennin. Kurenai has a shy little girl from the Hyuuga clan, one of those Aburame heirs, and the Inuzuka boy who tried to tame Tomo a few years back on one of his errands." Tomo growled. Mika giggled and offered him a piece of her bacon to soothe his pride. "Asuma got the bossy little Yamanka girl, the Akimichi heir, and the lazy Nara boy."

"I know him," Mika piped up. "He's the one who was sleeping in the field halfway between here and Konoha. Tomo was running and tripped over him."

"I did not trip," Tomo protested. "I am a four-tailed wolf demon. I don't trip."

"Well, that's what it looked like!" Mika shot back. Then she turned back to Anko. "I thought he was dead at first because he didn't move or say anything. So I leaned over him to take his pulse, and he grabbed my wrist and said 'I'm alive, no thanks to your troublesome dog.' Then he went back to sleep without even opening his eyes once."

"Why does everyone think I'm a dog?" Tomo muttered, burying his head under his paws. "I don't look like a dog. I have four tails. How could anyone confuse me with a dog?"

Anko reached down and patted his head. "Well, you hide three of them when you're around other people, and the Inuzukas are famous for their half-breed wolf dogs, so it's an honest mistake." She leaned back in her seat, nursing her second cup of coffee. "Kakashi has the last Uchiha survivor, some little girl named Haruno, and the Kyuubi container, Uzumaki Naruto."

Mika's head perked up. "Does he have nine tails?" she asked.

Anko choked on her coffee. "What?"

"Tomo has four," Mika pointed out.

"Tomo is a demon . . . sort of," Anko reminded her. "Naruto didn't turn into a fox just because he has the fox inside of him. He isn't the Kyuubi, remember?"

Mika scoffed. "I know that. But Tomo lost his powers and kept his tails, so why shouldn't Naruto have tails too since the Kyuubi is inside of him?"

Anko tilted her head to the side. "You know, that actually has a certain logic to it. But he doesn't have tails. He's a regular human little boy except for the whisker scars on his face."

"Oh, okay." Mika slid out of her seat and reached for her sandals. "Can I go outside now? I want to find that funny little yellow bird's nest."

"Get out of here, brat. I'll be out as soon as I get dressed."

_Anko was sitting in one of the lounges reserved for jounins in the Hokage tower teasing Gai about his 'adorable' future student when Tomo burst in with a silver-haired jounin at his heels. This was not a sight she was prepared for, but then all thoughts of Kakashi vanished when Tomo gave her his message. "She's sick. Really sick and the old woman can do nothing. You need to come."_

_Anko was out the window and across the village before Tomo and Kakashi caught up to her. "Go away, Kakashi," Anko gritted between her teeth._

_"I can help."_

_"You're not a medic nin. Stay out of my way."_

_"Who is she?"_

_"My little sister," Anko lied. "An old woman outside of town watches her for me." Kakashi didn't say another word, but continued to follow her. Anko ignored him since the barrier would keep him out. She turned the day's walk into a two hour dead run only drawing on her chakra when absolutely necessary. She would need that to take care of Mika. She saw the house up ahead, and put on another burst of speed, leaving Kakashi behind as she passed through the barrier with Tomo on her heels. Kakashi had stopped suddenly and was probably staring at the warded open space that others saw. It didn't matter to Anko as she sprinted into her house and rushed to her daughter's bedside._

_The old woman hastily moved out of her reach and held out a small handful of red berries. "I brought them for our lunch."_

_Anko snarled, knocking them from the civilian's hands. "Those are poisonous, you old hag. Get out!" Gathering green healing chakra to her hands, she gently propped her four year old daughter up and slid her hands over Mika's limbs before concentrating on her stomach, summoning the poison to her hand. Healing wasn't her specialty, but one of the few useful things Orichimaru had taught her was poison summoning, antidotes, and personal healing. Once she had removed what little of the poison that hadn't been absorbed into the bloodstream already, the only thing she could do was wait for the toxin to run its course and the fever to do its work. She kicked off her sandals and shin guards before crawling into the bed next to her child to wait it out with Mika. Mika was supposed to be safe here, but the civilian woman wasn't enough of a guardian. First those hunters and now poisonous plants. She saw silver fur in the doorway, the same color as her daughter's hair, hair inherited from her father._

_"Tomo," she called and the wolf padded over. Anko patted the bed on the other side of Mika. "You can stay. If you'll protect Mika, you can stay."_

_The wolf leapt onto the bed and nodded solemnly. "I owe her my life. I'll use it to guard hers." There was silence for a moment before Tomo spoke up. "The silver-haired human still sits outside of the barrier. He does not know of his offspring, does he?"_

_Anko shook her head, and there was silence again as they waited for the silver-haired child to wake up._

Anko sat up abruptly automatically stifling her panic and slowing her breathing. Her surroundings bled back into her consciousness, and she looked around for her daughter. Mika was crouching next to the small pond having a serious conversation with the bullfrog she had found there. Tomo looked up from his resting place beside his ward and padded over to Anko.

Anko petted him absently as she was still thinking about the past. His voice dragged her back to the present. "Bad dream?"

Anko shrugged. "I thought I'd stick around for a little while this time. Take a break from missions and train Mika a little bit. Don't want her to start the Academy unprepared."

"So you have told the silver-haired human?"

Anko rubbed at the back of her neck, ignoring the twinge of pain from her curse seal as she did so. "Not exactly."

Tomo shook his head gravely before settling himself with his head in Anko's lap. She obediently began scratching behind his ears. "There's no way he could miss her in Konoha. He'll find out."

Anko snickered. "You don't know how fond he is of that book. There is the possibility that he could completely miss her presence for two or three years."

Tomo regarded her seriously from his gold-streaked black eyes. "It would be better if you told him. He camped out beside the barrier for two days straight and you gave him no explanation," he lectured.

Anko took her hand away. "As a glorified puppy dog, you have no right to give me relationship advice, Tomo. It's bad enough that you convinced me to send her to the academy. The whole point of living out here was so that he could never find out about Mika."

"I am Tomo, the four-tailed wolf demon, for all of your teasing about being your pet, and as such, I am older and wiser than all of you involved. Mika hides her genius well, but it is there and it must be properly trained. You've hidden something very important from the silver-haired human for over seven years. Someday secrets are going to come out and you aren't going to like the consequences."

Anko glared back at the wolf, but eventually caved. "I hate when your arguments make more sense than mine do," she griped. "You always pull that immortal and millennia old card."

"Shut up, Anko," the wolf replied, returning his head to her lap. "And scratch my ears."

In Konoha, Hatake Kakashi had just passed the first gennin team he had ever been offered. Now he had to live with the consequences of taking on two constantly quarreling boys and a lovesick girl. One of which was protecting Naruto from Sakura's fists while keeping a good grasp on Sasuke's shirt so he couldn't disappear. Finally making it into the Hokage's office, he caught Iruka's attention and passed off the blonde to the academy teacher. "Mission Accomplished, Hokage-sama."

"Excellent. Take the rest of the day off."

Kakashi turned Sasuke loose a second before the Uchiha boy turned into a log, and Naruto's scandalized yelp preceded the blonde boy's chase directly out the window. Sakura followed after shortly screaming loud enough at Naruto to be heard throughout the village. Kakashi sank into the closest chair and muttered, "I want a raise."

"Train them faster," the Hokage suggested from his desk where he worked on his paperwork. "I think Sakura could benefit from a little boost in her skills. Would you object to Anko taking her on a training trip?"

"It might drive a point that isn't Sasuke-related through the girl's skull," Kakashi muttered. "But I haven't seen Anko-san in over a week. I assumed she was out on a mission."

"No," Iruka spoke up, searching his files rapidly. "She's actually been out of contact for a week. That odd wolf summons came through with a request for some time off."

"Wolf summons? You think that's what it is?" Kakashi questioned.

Iruka shrugged. "What else could it be?"

Kakashi let the point go. Iruka didn't know that Anko had a snake summoning contract, or that the wolf came for Anko as often as it was sent by Anko. "Let me know when she gets back. I'll talk to her about taking Sakura camping in the Forbidden Forest."

"What will you do with the boys while Anko has Sakura?" Iruka asked.

Kakashi grinned. "My house needs to be painted, and the dogs tore up the backyard last time I forgot to dismiss them. They won't get bored." Before the chunnin could protest, Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Mika leapt a solid foot in the air when her mother appeared in a puff of smoke immediately behind her. "Kaa-san!"

"What are you supposed to be doing, Mika?"

"Training with kunai," Mika sulked.

"And what are you actually doing?"

"Working on my katon jutsu without supervision," Mika sighed and retrieved her weapons from her hip pouch and resumed throwing them at the target rather than setting the target on fire. It would be a long afternoon.


	2. Tomo The Four Tailed Wolf Demon

**A/N: Gah. I was trying to up load the new story and forgot to edit the first chapter to put in line breaks and disclaimer and stuff. So it's here. I don't own anything recognizeable as Masashi Kishimoto's. I own Mika, and Tomo, and the plot. Well, here's the second chapter. I was going to post it in a week, but I didn't want anyone to think I missed the mistake. I know it's there. I just don't know how to fix it. Enjoy.**

**The Four Tails**

**By Original Dark Angel**

**Chapter 2: Tomo, The Four-Tailed Wolf Demon**

Itachi slowly dragged his blade across his victim's throat and dropped the corpse. For just a moment, his awareness was genuine as he stared at the blood-stained blade in horror. Slowly he ran his finger along the blade, unsure if the blood was real or a figment of his imagination. He hoped desperately for the latter, but the sticky wet liquid told him otherwise.

Itachi dropped the blade and frantically rubbed off his hands on the robe he wore, his partner ignoring him entirely. Itachi looked around in confusion, memory and present tangling in his brain.

"Sasuke?"

Kisame finally took notice of him. "Shu," the missing-nin from the Village Hidden in the Mist commanded.

Itachi's ring burned, and the calm emotionless demeanor reappeared on the Uchiha features. He turned to his partner. "Mission accomplished, Kisame. Let us return."

* * *

Kakashi returned to his home with a sullen twelve year old in tow. His slow pace was only in consideration for his unwilling companion's sprained ankle. He dragged Sasuke through the door and deposited the gennin on the couch. "Don't move from that spot or I swear I'll turn you over to Gai for a few days."

He returned to find Sasuke sitting on the sofa, arms crossed and leg propped up. The dark-haired gennin glared up at him. "Hurry up. I want to go home."

"You're staying here for a week, maybe two," Kakashi informed him as he opened the first aid kit. "Don't argue."

"I'm not helpless."

"You decided to spar with Naruto, fall off the cliff and sprain your ankle. Deal with the consequences. Besides if you go home, Sakura and Ino will come over to serve as your nurses. Do you really want them around when you can't out run them?"

Sasuke's glare darkened, but he allowed Kakashi to wrap his ankle. "Naruto's arm had to be sprained, or dislocated, or something if not actually broken. It definitely didn't look right. Why doesn't he have to stay here?"

"I checked Naruto's arm," Kakashi reproved quietly. "He can take a fall better than you. Now shut up and stay off of it. I'll get you something to eat, and find a few blankets after that so you can get some sleep."

Sasuke tested his weight on his ankle for a second before conceding defeat and returned to the couch. "Three days."

"One week. I'm the jounnin-sensei. What I say goes." Kakashi gave his little irritating smirk/smile/whatever-the-heck-expression-it-was-because-all-Sasuke-could-see-was-a-single-eye, and reassembled the first aid kit. "It's one of the few perks of my job. Now behave yourself. I'll be right back."

"Not ramen!" Sasuke yelled after his departing sensei, before sitting back on the couch in a worse mood then he had started the day with.

* * *

When Kakashi returned with the best Ichiriku had to offer and an unexpected dinner guest, it was to find Sasuke fast asleep on his couch. Kakashi dumped the bags on the table and set Naruto to work serving up the food while he took the more unpleasant task of waking up the Uchiha. Previous experience had taught Team 7 that Sasuke was not by any standards, a morning person.

"Sasuke. Sasuke. Wake up, Sasuke. I've got dinner. Sasuke."

"SASUKE-TEME!"

Sasuke bolted upright and only Kakashi's jounnin speed kept their skulls from colliding. "What the hell is the dobe doing in my home?"

"Language," Kakashi reminded him. "And this is my home."

"What the hell is the dobe doing in your home?" Sasuke muttered grumpily into the throw pillow that he had buried his face in, upon realizing that Kakashi was right about his location. Kakashi didn't answer but a minute later he realized that he should have because Sasuke had returned to sleep.

"Sasuke?" Shrugging, Kakashi abruptly tossed the gennin over his shoulder and headed for the kitchen, ignoring the flying fists and feet. It wouldn't last long, and soon enough there was a howl of pain as Sasuke went limp when his bad ankle felt the pain of fighting back. Kakashi unceremoniously dumped him into a vacant chair and Naruto put a bowl of steaming ramen in front of him. "Eat," Kakashi smiled, mussing both boys' hair fondly. "I found Naruto at Ichiriku's, so I brought him along."

"One gennin guest wasn't enough, Kakashi? You went looking for a second and had to settle for the village moron?" Sasuke sniped, arms crossed and tone sulky.

"What did you say, Sasuke-teme?" Naruto yelped.

"Is your hearing as deficient as your intelligence?"

Naruto's third bowl of ramen in as many minutes went flying as he dove for Sasuke by the simple expedient of leaping over the table. Kakashi rescued his bowl of ramen and was sitting on the counter, eating rapidly while the boys were distracted with the impromptu wrestling match taking place on his kitchen floor. He barely had enough time to replace his mask before Sasuke went stiff, paler than normal, and dead silent. This meant that his ankle had been jarred again enough to leave the gennin in pain. Naruto realized this at the same time as Kakashi and immediately began apologizing.

"Shut up, dobe."

"Shut . . . you shut up, Sasuke-teme!" Naruto shrieked. And they were off again. Kakashi waited sixty seconds to intervene and then separated the two. "If Sasuke adds more injuries to his list, then he's going to be spending longer on my couch than he really wants to. Naruto, finish your ramen before I summon my dogs. Sasuke, eat your ramen and then you can go back to sleep."

For two glorious minutes, there was absolute silence in Kakashi's kitchen. It was good enough for him.

* * *

"Henge!"

Anko surveyed the perfect copy of Tomo in front of her, comparing it to the wolf at her side. "Very good, Mika."

Her daughter released the jutsu and bounced up and down. "I told you that it could be done with animals, kaa-san!"

"I'm not an animal," Tomo reminded the excited seven-year-old. "I'm a demon. I have chakra and powers even if I can't currently use them."

Mika huffed. "Well kaa-san still didn't think it would work!"

Anko tugged on her daughter's hair to regain Mika's attention. "And you proved me wrong. Turn into me one last time. Then you and the demon can go play until lunch."

There was one cry of delight, and one of outrage. The humans ignored Tomo's protests and Mika closed her eyes, concentrating hard. It had been far easier to turn into Tomo than it was to turn into a human. "Henge!"

Now she was the same height as her mother and she quickly mimicked her mother's stance. Hopefully her mother wouldn't notice that the tips of Mika's hair had remained silver. It was harder to maintain a different hair-color.

Anko tugged on Mika's silver-tipped hair with a grin. "Keep working on it, Mika. Now scat. Stay out of trouble, you two!"

* * *

Staying out of trouble was impossible for the silver pair, as Anko later discovered, although at least their brand of trouble drew less attention than the fox vessel's pranks. "Tomo's such a pretty wolf," Anko tried maintaining a serious face, but a giggle escaped.

Tomo gave her a dirty look, as he submitted to Mika's petting. His silver fur was highlighted by several garlands of wildflowers. Mika had spent most of the morning creating them and decorating her sleeping pet. Upon waking, Tomo bravely wore the flowers to make Mika happy, but Anko's teasing and laughter were too much. Shaking free of the flowers, he bounded up the stairs and curled up at the end of Mika's bed to sulk.

Once upon a time, Tomo was a mighty demon with powers not-to-be-belittled. Like his older brother and twin, Tomo drew his powers from the moon and was always more powerful at night. He had been the size of a boss summons, small for a demon, but still threatening, with his four tails, sharp fangs, and unnaturally colored eyes. A drenching icy chakra signature warned all that Tomo the four-tailed wolf was nearby. There was something reassuring about the tiny humans and pitiful shinobi running for their lives as he froze whole towns for amusement, his brother, Hoshi melting them with his ashy breath and lava-like drool. Then Akatsuki had changed all of that.

* * *

_It was a moonless night, the only time the twins were vulnerable. Without the moon, their powers were reduced significantly, leaving them with only their intelligence and tails. Even their size was diminished to the size of a rather grand alpha male. They had been curled up in a cave waiting for the night to end and their powers to return when a huge fire lit up the entrance of their cave and two figures leapt through the flames. They had been wearing long black cloaks and one wielded chakra unnaturally. Tomo had thought them both to be male until long blue hair fell loose as Hoshi's claws severed it from the owner's head. Not that long hair was a defining characteristic, but the woman's reaction upon the loss of her hair was. She screamed and sank her katana up to the hilt in Hoshi's side. Her companion had slapped her for that, and Tomo tried to comfort his brother while the humans were distracted._

_Without powers, the wound couldn't be healed, and without any form of escape, Tomo couldn't take his brother away from the dangerous humans. So he licked his brother's coat and rumbled reassuringly. Eventually the humans had stopped arguing, and the woman pulled a small statue from the depths of her cloak. Releasing the jutsu on it, the man revealed an enormous bonding statue and summoned others, eight more cloaked figures, through the flames and began a ceremony that Tomo could barely believe existed. He had whined like a frightened pup, and his brother pushed him away with his head. Tomo resisted, and Hoshi bit him, regaining the younger wolf's full attention._

_"Go."_

_Tomo had his orders, and even if he didn't like them, he obeyed his elder brother. As a shattering light, sound, and feeling of the very air occurred, Tomo leapt through the flames blocking the entrance and raced away, his four tails singed black at the ends permanently as a souvenir. When the sun rose, Tomo waited for his powers to return so that he could go and destroy the humans that had harmed his brother, but they never did. Tomo's chakra was dependent on Hoshi's, and Hoshi was sealed inside of the ugly bonding statue, as Tomo later observed. But by getting away and disrupting the ceremony, Tomo had made it impossible for the Akatsuki members to remove the statue from the cave, or for the leader himself to leave. Since Akatsuki set up shop in his old home, Tomo was forced to move on, to find a new home and new companions. Even as he left, he swore to someday free his brother from the statue.

* * *

_

Mika slipped into the bed and rested her head against his chest. "Kaa-san is sorry, Tomo. I'm sorry I decorated you without permission."

Tomo licked her hair once to let her know that she was forgiven and rested his head over hers. Let Anko grovel for a while longer.

* * *

_Tomo had been running from the hunters for a week now, but his foot had only worsened since he first slipped in that snake hole two days ago. He couldn't get much further. Cornered in an alleyway of the small town, he turned to face his pursuers stoically. The largest lifted his weapons . . . and then the silver haired child tumbled out of a box nearby. Tomo leapt forward, snatching the child's collar and dragging her out of the way of the flying shuriken. The hunters leapt forward and sank a kunai into Tomo's side as Tomo pushed the child away from him. Tomo's pain-filled yelp gave Mika new fire. The silver-haired child leapt onto his back, clinging to his neck._

_"Don't hurt my doggy."_

_"Get out of my way, brat."_

_"I know you didn't just call my daughter a brat."_

_Tomo hadn't even seen the woman appear behind the hunters. Her eyes proved her claim over the child. They were the same dark eyes of his little rescuer. She was smaller than all of the men, but Tomo could tell by both her chakra and her hitiate that she was a ninja and therefore more than strong enough to take out the hunters. She broke the largest one's arm and tossed his weapons to the ground before any of the men turned around._

_"To threaten a child, barely four years old with weapons? What kind of men are you?"_

_"Not the girl," one sputtered. "We just want the wolf."_

_"So you're picking on helpless injured creatures? You're more scum than I thought you were. Get out of here. If you see this wolf around again, just remember he's under my protection. Scat."_

_Anko turned around and reached out for the child. Mika went to her and pointed back at Tomo. "Kaa-san! Look at my doggy!"_

_"I see the doggy, Mika. I just don't know what we're going to do with him."

* * *

_

There was nothing he could do about it. He'd simply have to forgive Anko. She had taken him in despite misgivings and Tomo loved Mika too much to leave in a huff. Honestly, they were turning him into a house pet.

Tomo heaved an exaggerated sigh and nipped Mika's neck lightly. The silly child had fallen asleep mid-day, and Tomo knew that if she took a long nap now, she would be impossible to put to bed later. Mika grumbled and buried her face further in his fur. Tomo used his snout to push her off of the bed.

Mika hit the floor with a startled yelp and looked up at Tomo with a pout. "That was mean, Tomo," she whined.

Tomo snorted. "Learn to sleep at normal hours then, brat."


End file.
